Digitalization - revitalization or threat to democracy? Reflections on the democratic quality of digital public sphere

There is currently much discussion about the crisis or even the end of democracy. In the initial phase of digitalisation, many hoped that the Internet, with its boundlessly open, egalitarian and interactive structure, would provide a boost to democratisation. This article is based on J & uuml;rgen Habermas' deliberative theory of democracy and examines whether the digital public sphere fulfils the requirements of a critical public sphere as a normative principle. The opportunities and risks of increasingly online public communication are weighed up against each other from various perspectives: e. g. with regard to participation, integration, orientation towards reason or the common good.